3. Then there is the final rest — the rest after toil, when the day's work is done. " Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth : yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours." Even the earthly part rests in the grave, where the "weary" are "at rest." But the better part, "sleeping in Jesus," is carried to Paradise, to the stillness of the blessed dead, to the waiting yet happy and restful company of sainted souls.
Take the earthly analogy. What is so welcome to a tired worker from the fields, when night falls, as rest ? Or to a traveller who has come over the mountains, and been on the way since the sun rose, until now that he has set ? Would you propose to such weary men some new enterprises, asking them to join you at once in some new endeavour ? They would say " No, we are tired now — let the night be gone, we will speak with you in the morning." Such, and so welcome, is the rest of the grave, and the sleep of death to God's children when they are weary.
Eest, weary soul! The penalty is borne, the ransom paid, For all thy sins, full satisfaction made, — Strive not to do thyself, what Christ has done, Claim the free gift, and make the joy thine own ! No more by pangs of guilt and fear distrest,
Eest, sweetly rest!
Rest, weary heart ! From all thy silent griefs, and secret pain, Thy profitless regrets, and longings vain, — Wisdom and love have ordered all the past, All shall be blessedness and light, at last ! Cast off the cares that have so long opprest,
Eest, sweetly rest!
1 J. Brierley, Faith's Certainties (1914), 250,
DANIEL xii. 13 285
Eest, weary head ! Lie down to slumber, in the peaceful tomb, Light from above has broken through its gloom, — Here in the place, where once thy Saviour lay, Where He shall wake thee, on a future day, Like a tired child upon its mother's breast,
Eest, sweetly rest!
Eest, spirit free ! In the green pastures of the heavenly shore, Where sin and sorrow can approach no more, — With all the flock by the Good Shepherd fed, Beside the streams of life eternal led, For ever with thy God and Saviour blest,
Eest, sweetly rest !
IIL
Eecompense.
"Thou shalt stand in thy lot at the end of the days."
1. The form into which the closing word of the Divine message falls at once brings up before our mental vision a picture of the Hebrew newly put into possession of his inheritance in the Promised Land, and rising to survey the allotment which is now his own. Freed from the toil of wandering in the dreary way of the desert, he has attained what in the old days he had dreamed of as his " rest." But it is a sphere, not of idleness, but of work, that he has found. His allotment will henceforth require care, and only as he brings to bear upon it his best efforts and utmost skill will the owner realize all its possibilities of enrichment and of blessing. The whole conditions are, however, completely changed, and between the present happy service upon his own inheritance and his former weary toiling in the way of the desert comparison is not even possible.
After the weariness of life man may well need rest, and such rest will be bestowed. But that is not God's last word to man, not in that does the fulness of the great inheritance of the followers of Christ lie. The Divine promise looks beyond the rest to glorious activity ; and, with spirit and body wholly restored and
286 A PROMISED INHERITANCE
altogether whole and strong, there is opened up before the eye of faith a vista of the noblest and most exultant service that can be conceived, and reaching away into the eternal future further than even faith can see. To His weary children everywhere the Great Father says, " Thou shalt rest " ; but He goes on to add the last word, which is of service, not of rest, and as such rounds off and completes what is in deed and in truth a message of hope to every child of man.
Tj Ward and Faber delighted in the imaginative picturing of the supernatural world with the simple directness of the ages of faith, and in startling contrast to the vague atmosphere of modern thought on matters of dogma. The Oratorian fathers who remember that time recall Ward's presence during the recreation hour after dinner, at Old Hall, when he and Faber, eager talkers alike, both " of mighty presence," with immense vocabularies, with equal positiveness of logic and superlativeness of rhetoric, sat opposite each other capping epigrams and anecdotes, while the other fathers were gathered round in a ring. One point of debate — parallel to the mediaeval questions as to the habitual occupations of the angels — was the nature of our future employments in the next world. Of what kind is the daily life in heaven ? " Take Stewart for example," asks Ward, referring to the well-known and kind-hearted theological bookseller, " what can he find to do there ? " Various suggestions are made. " Bind the Book of Life," Ward proposes. "But that won't last for ever!" Faber replies. " He and St. Jerome will talk without ceasing." — " Ah, but he will never be happy without work." Other plans are suggested till Faber hits on the best. "I have it — he should catalogue the angels." x